Hi coolcen

The way I understand it, if your policy had the open driving facility on your Merc then on rare occaisions anyone would be able to drive your car if they had your permission. The other option would be to name him as a driver.

Your best bet would be to talk to a broker if you are unsure.

Becca

Hi, i called yesterday for my sons car insurance, on that number given at the start of this thread. I started asking for a policy in my name for my sons car with open driving on it, and was told that the car does need to be insured in the name of the person on the docs, otherwise this is called something called fronting, and they prob wouldnt pay out on a claim. I thought no!, im goning to have to pay a fortune just to get him insured on his own car, when the helpful lad at the other end offered me that Pay As You Go insurance.

Its fully comp, and cover as the lad told me it works like a mobile phone contract.

Bascially to insure my 19 year old boy, fully comp for 12 months i would have a starting payment to make of £216, and 11 monthly payments of £35, as his basic rate, this covered him for the comprehensive driving, legal cover and a coutesy car, aswell as RAC breakdown cover and the first 100 miles he did each month, he then just pays for what he drives after the first 100 miles, its about 6.5p per mile in the day but late at night it is £1 per mile. This is added to each monthly bill so you dont get a nasty surprise at the end of the year. They put a GPS sat nav in the car which can be paid for on a pay as you go thing aswell if you want to use it. but could also track the car if someone stole it, and this is what tells Norwich Union what mileage the car does.

Apparently it does depend on what car you have your postcode, and other "rating factors" as to what price they give you for the policy.

As my son is still learning and planning on doing his pass plus in his first few months he'll be doing less than 100 miles a month (im not taking him out that often its scary) so he's only gonna pay his £35 a month, but when he does his pass plus the price will come down another 10% apparently.

as we have it worked out if he was to do about 6000 miles in the next 12 months he would pay about £600 for his basic cover, and another £312 for his mileage ((6000(miles) - 1200(100 miles free each month)) = 4800 x 6.5p)

so around £900 for the year fully comp in his own name on a 1.4l 2003 ford focus, with me as a names driver (this took off another 10% from the original price) and when he does his pass plus it will go down again, and if he does less driving it will go down. This is great! the only down side that my son doesnt like is the £1 after 11pm at night, but he loves the idea of sat-nav in his car, so its going to be a fair trade i think at about £35+£25 = £60 a month give or take

incidentally Norwich union also offered me a standard policy for my son to the same level of cover, which was nearly £1800 if i pay in one go, or with an extra 8% if paying monthly or about £160 a month. so pay as you go is less than half the price.

Its nice to see some companies are doing things for young drivers, that make it fair for the driver, if my son isnt using the car he just pays a fee to keep the insurance running, and when he is using it he pays that fee and his mileage. Apparently they do the same for drivers over 24, but with better prices than £1 per mile at the night times, so they are taking into account the more experianced drivers too. I think my son will have this and when my policy comes up in june im going to have a look as i only do about 8000 a year myself.

seriously just call the number the lad gave me last night (they are all in the UK, bonus!) 0800 068 6985

anyhoo's going to wait for pay day and then set this cover up for my son, and get him his own no claims started (hopefully)

Rick

This thread has now just turned into a Norwich Union marketing tool. How did the moderators miss that?

Norwich Union is not the only company in the market which does things for young drivers.

Fun, are you implying that i'm a stooge red? comedy. I go out my way to repy to the forum about the experiance i had asking for open driving and what I feel is a good offer to cover my lad, I aint been idle either,seriously, I tried MoreThan this morning as they offer something called "DriveTime" on the same idea, but where you pay about 60% of the premium up front then a flat £25 pound if the car is used at all at night, each night! still installing a GPS thing to the car, but with no resue cover, legal or courtesy car they wanted a starting payment of £1100, then would take £25 out of my sons account each time he drove after 11....... too much up front and too much if he even moves the car off the driveway, so the pay as you go seems a better deal for comprehensive and legal cover in my sons name

I'm about to try and call Adrian Flux as ive heard that they offer somthing like this and i'll let you kind hearted folks know how I get on if you want.

Rick

*** edit ****

just got off the phone with adrian flux, looks like I was wrong and they only offer a restricted mileage policy, then transfered me round the houses for a while till I ended up with express cover, in all fairness came in with a good price at £1300 for my son, but never heard of them.... ah well will wait for the quote to turn up and see what the crack is.

Rick

Fair comment - the point I was making was that NU are not the only people in the market that are doing things for young drivers. However, NU's Pay as you Drive is for 18+ only as there is a contract between NU and the policyholder, so 17 year old drivers still miss out, same with Driver Time.

The GPS units do send back more information than that needed to record the time the car was moving. These units have the capacity to send back information to determine how the car is being driven and could be used to assess future risk profiles. No bad thing if you know about it in advance.

Hi all,

I hope that this will be of use to all us young driver's, i have been faced with the same problem that every young driver has, and i have done resarch for hrs and hrs trying to find a cheap way to do this, the best (and cheapest) way to do this is legitimate, like Jay i went to Norwich Union, and i must say they were absolutley the best customer service that i could ask for, i rang them and opted for the any driver with my mum as the main driver, however under 25s must declair themselves and be put on the insurance to do this it was going to be 1125 however that was on my car a vauxhall corsa, with me as a named driver, the advisor then sugested that i could persuade my mum to take out a polocy with them and they would give me a discout, so i did, i was only expecting, about a 10 % discount but in total it cost 512Pr yr for the corsa and 211 for my mums accord, this was brilliant because my mum was paying 380 per yr, so i have taked out this insurance, (fully comp on both cars i might add) and it has come to a total of 723, and with this they threw in RAC breakdown, a FREE curtercy car, windscreen cover, and legal cover, ON BOTH CARS, i would highly recomend that you look into this. I hope this is of much use to you as it was me.

Norwich U, number is 08702420047

Regards
Michael

Mikee:Hi all,

i would highly recomend that you look into this. I hope this is of much use to you as it was me.

Norwich U, number is 08702420047

As we all know, the service is measured and judged when it comes to making a claim or at the end of the period term. Although it is clear the price looks good from the outset, it's important to know this type of policy is still 'BETA' and should be considered with caution. I'm glad it's working out, so far, for you Michael! (and Rick, if he's still knocking around)

I've heard that recently brokers are expressly acting against this kind of behaviour as it leaves the policy holder open to abuse and some insurers may choose not to pay out due to the fronting aspect (fronting is deliberately trying to reduce your policy by adding a young driver as an additional main driver).

I suspect we'll see a decline in the number of insurers honouring such policies over the next year due to the general economic problems.

Any thoughts anyone?

---

Joe Blogs

Hello!

Best thing to do if you want cheaper insurance and your adding a younger driver make sure that you (as the adult) are the owner and the younger person is a secondary driver.

BETTER STILL, GET A MINI. I know I've written this one before but as this is a longer forum ill post it here too.

My names alex and I'm a young driver. Now i started learning when I was 17 and passed my test about 11 months ago. I haven't done pass plus, and have has a little incident with another car, (only a scratch, just the day after I passed!!) which didn't affect my mums no claims bonus while I was on her insurance. I'm planning on getting my own once i have a year of driving and one years no claims. Now with all of that I have a little mini, its 27 years old and has a 998cc or a 1 litre engine and at most is worth 1500.

After looking at a few quotes the best I've found is for about 650 pounds from the AA, and works out at about 60 pounds a month. hardly anything really and gives you loads of stuff including european cover, courtesy car etc. The fact is, if you are a young driver, don't go for something thats flash, new and fast, get a slow and steady old banger with a little engine, best is a 1 litre or less (as 998cc englines are less than 1 litre on insurance), and your insurance is a hell of a lot less!

Another mini quote again but with a 1.3 litre injection rally spec mini with a fibre glass flip front and again 1 years experience and 1 years no claims. the very nice people at ENDSLEIGH quoted me happy and offered 875 pounds or 85pounds per month for fully comprehensive and European cover, courtesy car etc. Its surprising but if you have a little car, and a little engine oh and only 2 seats in your mini you can get very tiny quotes!

save your wallet, buy a mini!

BIG AL, little mini

I have 2 youngsters 19 and 20 who are learning to drive in my car. My previous insurer MoreThan quoted £555 to put them on my policy. After reading these posts I rang Norwich Union and asked about their Open Driver policy - fully comp for the main (adult) drivers ie myself and my husband, third party only for under 25s. Norwich Union quoted me £258.00 which seems very good.

nuttinggirl:I have 2 youngsters 19 and 20 who are learning to drive in my car. My previous insurer MoreThan quoted £555 to put them on my policy. After reading these posts I rang Norwich Union and asked about their Open Driver policy - fully comp for the main (adult) drivers ie myself and my husband, third party only for under 25s. Norwich Union quoted me £258.00 which seems very good.

It sure does !!

nuttinggirl:I have 2 youngsters 19 and 20 who are learning to drive in my car. My previous insurer MoreThan quoted £555 to put them on my policy. After reading these posts I rang Norwich Union and asked about their Open Driver policy - fully comp for the main (adult) drivers ie myself and my husband, third party only for under 25s. Norwich Union quoted me £258.00 which seems very good.

Did you set up this policy? Looks excellent value.Have you come across any snags since posting?

yes I did, paperwork has since arrived, says the same as above.

Very good news.Thanks for alerting it to us.

nuttinggirl:yes I did, paperwork has since arrived, says the same as above.

nuttinggirl: Did you happen to read the posts on here from the NU Direct employees - you know, the ones that explain that you're not properly insured?

This thread has to be one of the most entertaining things on the Web - it's got it all: an amazing cost-saving revelation, a loss adjuster with the wrong motor insurance cover, NU Direct call centre staff who are apparently confused (dot com) and even a recommendation from Becca at NU Direct that someone asks a broker for insurance advice. Gripping stuff and surely evidence enough that UK consumers have got precisely the kind of personal insurance market they deserve.